Example yui3 autocomplete using yql

gistfile1.html

<input type="text" name="q" id="q" />
<script type="text/javascript">
YUI().use("autocomplete", "autocomplete-highlighters", "datasource-get", function (Y) {
        var acDS = new Y.DataSource.Get({ 
            source: "http://sugg.search.yahoo.com/gossip-us-fp/?nresults=10&queryfirst=2&output=json&version=&command=",
            });

        Y.one('#q').plug(Y.Plugin.AutoComplete, {
            maxResults: 10,
            resultHighlighter: 'phraseMatch',
            requestTemplate: "{query}",
            resultListLocator: 'gossip.results',
            resultTextLocator: 'key',
            source: acDS 
        });
});
</script>

The problem here is that since you're embedding the query in a URL which is itself embedded in another URL for the sake of the YQL query, you need to double-escape the query. AutoComplete only single-escapes it, since it has no way of knowing that you're embedding a URL in another URL.

Your best bet here is probably either to wrap the sugg.search API in a custom YQL table and then just use that table (so you won't need to double-escape), or use DataSource to talk to YQL, which will give you full control over the escaping.

hmm.. maybe I'll just stick with search.suggest for now and figure out something else later. Better than getting ip blocked or annoying anyone. I'm just moving unscatter.com to use search.web and search.news and then use blekko for the more vertical searches like blogs and reviews.

Actually, after doing some digging, I edited my comment to remove the bit about possibly getting IP blocked. That shouldn't be a problem.

But yeah, anything that doesn't require you to embed a URL within the YQL query would be a better bet. I'll consider adding an option to customize escaping behavior for queries used with YQL sources (you can already customize it for other source types).

Well I've been meaning to figure out how to use datasource better, so I'll go straight with datasource to the sugg.search endpoint. The extra hop should speed it up a little bit, though honestly it was plenty fast using YQL. Thanks for digging around on that, nice to know I can use that endpoint. :)

To clarify: I'm not officially saying you're allowed to use sugg.search, I'm just saying you probably won't get blocked. ;)

Here's an example showing how to use AutoComplete+DataSource+YQL: http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/3/examples/autocomplete/ac_datasource.html

Fair enough. I'm actually putting the query client side in the browser, so if anyone complains I'll just pull it down quickly. It's so raw right now I only have 1 person who uses it beside me. I was thinking I'd just skip YQL altogether and do a datasource direct to sugg.search.

If you get a sec, can you take a look at the new version of this gist and tell me why it's not working? Based off of everything I've read it should work, but it's not creating the list at all.

DataSource.Get requires a response wrapped in a JSONP callback. The sugg.search API doesn't let you specify a custom JSONP callback, so this can't work. You'll have to go through YQL to get past the same domain restriction.